Deutsche Bank’s Gad Caspy takes over European CRE

Deutsche Bank’s Gad Caspy takes over European CRE
Posted on October 26, 2011 7:48 pm

Deutsche Bank has appointed Gad Caspy as its new European head of real estate, replacing Cyril Courbage who left the bank at the end of September, CoStar News has learned.

http://costarfinance.com/2011/10/26/deutsche-banks-gad-caspy-takes-over-european-cre/

Caspy, currently a managing director in Deutsche Bank’s New York-based global structured credit division, has worked closely with the divisions’ head, Elad Shraga, with their working relationship at Deutsche Bank reportedly dating back to a stint at the bank’s Tel Aviv branch.

Shraga has been integrating the European real estate team into his wider global structured credit division since the turn of the year as the bank seeks to target the much deeper US structured finance investor market for its European real estate debt.

Caspy is expected to relocate to London next month and to drive through the next phase of integration with the European commercial real estate team in the final months of frenetic year for the bank, reflected both in deal flow and personnel changes.

Deutsche Bank is currently attempting to syndicate three UK loans which were originally earmarked as its second CMBS of the year, before the mixture of events during and since the summer evaporated investor appetite for new origination securitised debt.

The Merry Hill loan, refinanced over the summer, is secured by shares in Queensland Investment Corporation and Westfield’s Merry Hill shopping centre on the outskirts of Birmingham. Given that the loan is secured by shares, rather than the property itself, pfandbrief-funded banks will unlikely be interested because they require fixed securities.

MEPC’s Milton Park, an Oxfordshire business park, secures the second £145m loan, which has drawn interest from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank who is understood to be considering how much to take.

The third loan is secured by Marcol Group’s Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour. The syndication effort is headed up by director Fiona D’Silva, who joined from Goldman Sachs over the summer, and director Bhavesh Patel, who has in part replaced Heath Forusz, who left the bank in August.

Last month, Deutsche Bank syndicated the majority of its £305m senior loan, secured by Blackstone’s Mint portfolio to GE Capital Real Estate, GIC and M&G Investments.

Next month, the bank is aiming to pull off the protracted funding of Richard Caring and Stephen Sharp’s 20 Grosvenor Square luxury residential development.

The £330m mixed senior and mezzanine facility is expected to drawdown with the existing lenders on the ticket, despite worsening market conditions and exacerbated capital prudence on the part of lenders.

Yesterday, the bank reported third quarter net income of €777m, but chairman and CEO Josef Ackermann, admitted that “the operating environment was more difficult than at any time since the end of 2008, driven by a deteriorating macro-economic outlook, and significant financial market turbulence”.

Since the turn of the year, Deutsche Bank has aggressively been selling down its exposure to peripheral sovereign debt – from €12.1bn to €4.4bn over the nine months to the end of September.

This includes €1.6bn in Greek debt which has been marked to market at 46% of its notional value leaving the remaining exposure at just €881m.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

jwallace@costar.co.uk

http://costarfinance.com/2011/10/26/deutsche-banks-gad-caspy-takes-over-european-cre/